Now We Know

Thanks to that bit of investigative journalism by Balford Henry which was published in today's paper under the banner  "Parliament Not Passing Agreed Quota Of Bills"  and which begins "OVER the past 33 years, the Jamaican Parliament has been passing an average of 25 pieces of legislation annually, compared to the target of an average of 148," we now know why this country is regressing instead of progressing and why the word "Justice " has lost its meaning.

So despite the rapid growth in technology, our creaking system has not caught up with the possibility of experts authenticating a video recording, resulting in a clear case of murder which was played out before our eyes, going no where.

 To make matters worse,  in 2013, when an individual is overseas, the concept of video link is way beyond our utility because no legislation to cover it.

 With this latest reminder of  the disgraceful performance by our parliamentary representatives, how could I have expected them to have exercised the moral authority or even the competence to  bring to book  an under-performing  Public Defender?

I suppose if we had parliamentarians who cared what example they set for the youth in a country where productivity is steadily decreasing, or even a vigilant electorate, these things would be important.  But in Jamaica  we get the leadership we deserve, no more no less..........and live happily ever after ranking in the top five of the happiest people in the world!

Michael is my hero!

In all the heroic tales you read, there is a hero who saves a damsel in distress.

Well today I was that damsel in distress although I did not know it at the time and I was saved by Michael!

It was an absolutely wonderful day in every way. According to philosopher Chuck, happiness is when you have a good time with good food, good friends and good music. And we had it all plus I also had a bout extraordinary good luck.

I started my day riding from home at 6 am and the greatest achievement was riding all the way from home to Stony Hill without stopping once. Arrival time 7.10 am.

I was alone until on Long Lane, I was passed by Charles the 1st, Sheriff, Pat, Fatman and Chris (all members of the B team for the A team always rides out later than we do and catch us up along the way)  but they stopped to rest at Red Gal Ring while I slogged on.

At Stony Hill I saw Richard and Sharon who had (disgracefully) driven up instead of riding.

I remembered it was Elaine's (Perkins) birthday and called her to sing happy birthday.Then I sent Stanford to her home  nearby with an Ackee and saltfish breakfast which I bought at her regular haunt Countryside. She was absolutely overwhelmed saying it was the best thing that had  happened to her since Mutty died, so that really made me feel good.

When the rest of the B team arrived we headed off to Castleton where I was told we would wait for the A team.



 The ride was really good in the early morning before the sun got a chance to come out and beat the hell out of me. At Castleton we had delicious cray fish soup and members of the A team started to filter in.

When Michael arrived he immediately enquired if I had my car keys. I was a bit surprised at the question and since there was no doubt in my mind that it was in one of my pouches (one on my bicycle handle and the other on my person) I kind of dismissed the subject and found it quite funny when he said he had found a Chevrolet key on the road and when he stopped to pick it up, Orrel and Howie nearly crashed into him. 

As it turns out however, the joke was on me for had Chuck and Fatman not insisted that I check my pouch to make sure that I  really had my key, I would probably be outside right now with a grill man trying to saw off my grill so I could enter my house. For when I checked my both pouches, my key ring was nowhere to be found. (house and car key on the ring) When Micheal  asked Jordan to go the car to get the keys he had found and given her to keep, lo and behold they were mine. So you see why he is my hero for he saved me from having a distressful day!

I still can't figure out how my keys fell out though since both my pouches were zipped up when I checked and none had a hole. If I believed in duppy or obeah, I could put it down to one but with those out, I had to conclude that the Chinese are now making zippers that lock and unlock at will, for what else could have happened there? I have stopped trying to figure it out and have just accepted that today was really my very, very lucky day. And thanks to Ayatollah who made the arrangements and Charles the 1st who conceptualized the ride to Tapioca followed by a hike through the hills to Ugly river. To get there, we walked past Devon Pen all age school and a catholic church and ended up where there is a perfect swimming hole under the bridge.

Apart from the regular Fun and Thrills group, we had a number of 6th formers from St. Georges college who were at Tapioca on a retreat from Friday.  When they heard that among our group was Georges' Old Boy's President for Life Charles Williams  they were happy to spend time with the older folk and had a whale of a time too.

The comedy of the day was when Bernadette, seeing a visitor from New Zealand and some young fellows from Georges climb up to a big rock and jump down into the river, undertook the challenge. It took her a good 15 minutes of contemplation and encouragement from everyone shouting "jump" before she got the courage to do it! Then to make matters worse, after coming out of the water, she climbed back up to the rock to spend another 15 minutes to half hour trying to get  up the courage to  jump again!

We returned to our destination via the main road as the hill section though which we had hiked to get there was rather tedious.

As usual Maurice (RB)  led the march to ride back to Kingston and he was joined by Marcus, Chris and Johann and we never saw them until we got to Stony Hill . But then we did not leave till long after the others as we got some dominoes and Chuck and I took on Carolyn and Fatman with Chully and Stanford acting as fillers when anyone had to  take a bathroom break. It was not until we were nudged by Charles the 1st who had to transport some of the idlers that we got up from the table.

And to make it a truly wonderful day, my keys were safe in my pouch when I returned home.

Photographs supplied by Janel James and Charles Simpson)

A Great Tour

I got the best bargain for a long time, yesterday. Oh yes, it was a fund raising event but it was still a great bargain for fund raising events rarely give you value for money since the theory is that you are really giving to a good cause but  get a little something for your participation.

Anyway, I went on a Stella Maris foundation tour of Appleton  estate in St. Elizabeth. The tour of the distillery  normally costs US$25 but for Ja$2000 we got a lovely air conditioned bus ride from Kingston, with sandwiches and unlimited liquor on board. Then once there, we got a lovely Jamaican breakfast and a even nicer lunch and again, unlimited liquor. Wow.

The ambiance and the other "tourists:" were  great too  and to add to the fun, I ran into Cathy Gilpin -Hudson who had attended Hampton school with me from 1st to 6th form. Now I hated those years at Hampton, I guess because I don't do too well with dictatorship and that's what a boarding school is all about , dictatorship by the headmistress and her prison warders!

Cathy and I at Appleton

 As a result of my disliking the place thoroughly, I  had dismissed that period of my life almost totally from  my memory but reminiscing with Cathy brought back some great laughs.

Also about two weeks ago I had the shock of my life  while talking to someone in New York whom I had known many years ago. When he told me that my former headmistress who he had seen a lot of after I left school, used to speak highly of me, I was in total shock.  I shared that info with Cathy to which she replied "I am not surprised  as you were one of the 9 girls who passed Senior Cambridge out of the 11 of us who took it". That surprised me too for not only did I realize that Wesley Gammon (the headmistress)  rated people based on their academic achievements and not just because she hated all students, but also I had totally forgotten that our classes had been so small at that time and that two of my colleagues had actually failed that exam. You see, I was going under the assumption that everyone just passed every exam at that time!

S I guess I don't feel too badly about those school days anymore........I still think they were terrible.....a kind of jail experience, but I guess it wasn't as bad as I try to remember!

So it was a really wonderful day all around, only to be spoilt a bit on our return journey ...... spoilt only by the reminder of the inefficiency of our police and their total lack of common sense.

On the way back, just  outside Old Harbour, we ran into a big road block. On walking up to the top, I heard that a driver coming in the other direction of the dual carriageway, at about 3pm  had car trouble, stopped to fix it and was set upon by two gunmen. Fortunately he was a licensed firearm holder and shot one of them and they both ran away. So here comes our courageous police who put yellow tape on both sides of the road to process the  crime scene, but it never occurred to any of these smart police to tell the people at the toll booth to instruct  drivers to exit or even post police there to direct traffic.  The toll booth with the exit to Spanish town was no more than  about quarter mile from the crime scene!

So  when we arrived at about 5pm, naturally and unnecessarily, there was a huge traffic build up....some 2 hours later!

 A few drivers started turning around and drove  the wrong way on the on the soft shoulder to an exit about 1/4 mile  away and eventually our bus driver did so too but the traffic jam was so unnecessary, considering that the scene was so close to the Spanish Town exit and a little initiative by the police could have prevented the wasting of many many hours by many many commuters. We left a pile up of  at least 50 vehicles there.

 It didn't spoil my day anyway as I was quite comfortable sipping away at delicious rum punch after discovering what the problem was and that no one had died.  For all I know, the road block is probably still there! lol.

Only In Jamaica

I often complain in my blog about the terrible things that happen here, so why am I still here?

Because not only is Jamaica the most beautiful country I have ever seen, but also,  there are no people like us, for when wi bad wi bad, but when wi good we darn good and beyond comparison.

Take this great gesture I saw this morning.

While our bus drivers are among the worse in the world,  this morning, I  saw a bus stop on the left side of the road and the conductor got out, crossed the road, said something to a lady then held a lady's hand and escorted her safely across the road to the bus!

I have no doubt that he was thinking of getting an extra fare when he did that, but he could have gotten
an extra fare elsewhere so there was much more to this action than sheer desire to make some money.

Where  else but in Jamaica would you see such a wonderful  spontaneous act by an employee?

Extortion versus Lottery Scam.

In Jamaica, laws to make this a better society pass at a very very slow rate if at all. When we see anything happening in the justice system quickly, you know that some powerful outside country is wielding a big stick.

 Take the Dudus extradition. You think Dudus would ever have been arrested by the government he supported in so many ways, had he not been wanted by the USA? And you see the great lengths the JLP government went to to try and prevent his extradition!

I had to reflect on such sad matters on seeing how quickly the anti lottery scam law (Fraudulent Transactions Act) flew through parliament. That is because the victims of this scam are american citizens and that government has leaned heavily on our legislators.

On the other hand, Jamaicans have been victims of the extortion racket for decades with many business people murdered or injured for refusing to capitulate, but has any government rushed to enact effective legislation to stem this practice and make the perpetrators face severe fines when convicted?

 Absolutely not! Why? because the dons who usually control extortion are their people (PNP and JLP) and their guns and influence are critical in the garrisons, to our two parties which have been properly catagorised by the Gleaner  as "The gang of Gordon House"

 Among the allegedly most feared extortionists for decades downtown were Dudus and Zeeks (and their heirs and successors) two top supporters of the two parties that alternate in government, so you see why legislation to stop this practice which is a deterrent to people operating businesses in certain areas, has never been updated!

To add insult to injury, after Zeeks was sentenced for murder and millions  of dollars in cash found in his house, the government that he supports (the PNP) returned the cash that had been seized by the police, to him, without question about the source of income.

Jamaica is truly gangster country from  top to bottom.

Jamaica and Caricom

This absolutely beautiful country of mine, Jamaica is a big joke!

We are rightly fully rated among the happiest people in the world for we care about nothing, so our rulers knowing that,  are happy to do anything they feel  to us and get away with it.

Take the issue of Jamaica and Caricom. For years I have been one of the lonely voices in the wilderness pointing out that our association with Caricom has been nothing but a very expensive attempt to federate us through the back door with the other English Speaking Caribbean  countries although our association brings no benefit but severe costs.

This was the  feeling of the majority of the people in 1961 when they voted "NO"  in the the Referendum  on the issue,  but because our modern leaders all wear the University of the West indies school tie, they have tried to sneak us into this backdoor federation with great success.

Those of us who object to he federation, point to the disadvantages to Jamaica under the treaty of Chagaramus which have caused this country to have become a virtual colony of Trinidad and the fact that Jamaicans do not enjoy free travel to the smaller territories and in most cases are made to feel unwelcome.

These are issues that successive governments have chosen to ignore so it was with great surprise  that I read in the newspaper that  in joining in the Shanique Myrie case, one hears that the lawyers representing the Jamaican government are contending that Barbados has engaged in a pattern of discrimination against Jamaicans  Duh. So  if they have known this all along,  why have they not done anything about it?

Stupid question I guess, for nuh suh di tings run  a yard!

(Shaniqe Myrie brought a case against the Barbados government for refusing her entry to that country and for conducting a body search on her . The case is being brought in front of the Caribbean Court of Justice).

Poor Management, No Sanctions

One of the reasons why Jamaica has become one of  the (if not the most) most indebted countries in the world is because there are absolutely no sanctions for poor management/performance or policy making  in the public sector.  But why should there be when our taxpayers don't care that they are always being forced to bear the full brunt of the fallout?

One does not have to look far to find recent, stark and recurring examples of this being rubbed in our faces.... the Public Defender Earl Witter,  winner of the poorest performer award for the years 2011, 2012 and possibly 2013 and look at the destructive performance of the National Water Commission (NWC) over the years.

 The NWC has developed the expertise in destroying infrastructure and undoing all good road work and replacing same with totally unacceptable work.

 Oh yes, each time, the NWC is broke, it can always run to the taxpayers and get a bailout, whether we like it or not, but  are the policy makers /management or anyone there ever sanctioned for throwing money down the drain?

Never heard of it.  Latest examples of their destructive and money wasting practices will soon be visible on the new airport road and are already in evidence in Portmore where some roads were recently rehabilitated.

I think the Jamaican taxpayers deserve awards for being the most complacent, compliant and long suffering in the world.